Russia has provided more than $12 billion in government subsidies and loans to keep its aviation sector afloat — Western sanctions have cut off the supply of essential parts and maintenance services because of its invasion of Ukraine.
This is stated in the Reuters analysis.
Aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing stopped supplying spare parts and services in March 2022, and also canceled regular maintenance of the main air carrier Aeroflot and other Russian airlines.
Since then, the Russian Federation has spent more than a trillion rubles (over $12 billion) supporting the civil aviation industry, including aircraft production and financial assistance to airlines.
The spending is nearly double the 547 billion rubles (more than $6 billion) in payments made in 2020-2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic caused a sharp decline in air travel.
"Our fleet is very overloaded with foreign-made aircraft. We plan to produce more than a thousand aircraft, our own aircraft, by 2030. We have to work," Russian President Putin noted last week.
According to Swiss aviation intelligence ch-aviation, Russian airlines currently operate 991 aircraft, including 405 Russian ones.
However, only 133 Superjets were made by the state-owned United Aircraft Corporation. Other Russian-made aircraft such as Tupolev, Yakovlev and Ilyushin are occasionally used for commercial flights.
Having a reliable air force is crucial for Russia, both for transporting people and goods across its vast territory and for reinforcing Moscowʼs narrative that sanctions have minimal impact.
As Russiaʼs presidential elections begin in three months, the collapse of civil aviation could cause reputational and electoral pressure on Putin, who is running for another term.
- On November 23, the Ukrainian intelligence got access to the closed official documents of "Rosaviatsia", in which it is said that it has become three times more dangerous to travel by plane in Russia. In particular, the number of plane crashes and malfunctions has increased significantly — these are all direct consequences of Western sanctions, which the Russian Federation is trying to hide.